Science for Your Morning Coffee: Introducing Friday Snippets

Thomas Mortelmans

14 Jan 2026 — 1 min read

As we continue to evolve The Scientist’s Notebook, I want to thank you for being an essential part of this beta phase. Your readership and engagement have been invaluable in shaping the direction of this project.

Based on your initial feedback, I am excited to introduce a new addition to your inbox: The Scientist’s Notebook #Snippet.

Starting this week, you will receive a new edition every Friday. While our core #Entries provide deep, exhaustive dives into performance science, the Snippet is designed to be different. These are shorter, "Margin Snippets" extracted from our research reports and are designed to be easily digestible and focused on a single, high-value insight.

The goal is to provide a brief intellectual "breadcrumb" that you can process in under two minutes, giving you a clear look at a specific physiological mechanism or finding without the density of a full report.

As always, this is a collaborative process. If you have any feedback regarding content preferences, formatting, or any other input, please feel free to reach out to me directly. I would love to hear what is working for you and what isn't.

Thank you for being part of the journey and of the ESQ.Coaching family.

Cheers,

Dr. Thomas Mortelmans

Entry #004: The ergogenic potential of caffeine and sodium bicarbonate in endurance events

Hi Endurance Enthusiast, The pursuit of marginal gains in endurance performance often leads athletes toward the pharmaceutical cabinet of evidence-based ergogenic aids. Among the most rigorously studied are caffeine and sodium bicarbonate—two substances that target the physiological limiters of endurance through distinct, yet potentially complementary, pathways. While caffeine operates

Snippet #001: Reducing Oxygen Diffusion Distance Through Capillary Growth

Endurance training stimulates angiogenesis, a biological process that generates new microscopic blood vessels around muscle fibers. This adaptation increases capillary density, which significantly reduces the physical distance oxygen must travel to reach the mitochondria where energy is produced. By expanding the surface area available for diffusion, the muscle becomes more

Entry #003: How to prepare for a cycling race, pre-race fueling timeline, 24 hours to the start

Hi Endurance Enthusiast, Now that we have talked about the long-term aerobic development required to build your engine, we need to address the structural integrity of the chassis before you take it to the redline. Too often, I see athletes invest months in meticulous Zone 2 volume and threshold/Vo2

OpenLab #001: Real-time muscle oxygen measurements correlate well with blood lactate - Dr. Phil Batterson

Hi Endurance Enthusiast, Happy Friday! In this special ´Open Lab´ edition, we explore the localized environment where performance ultimately succeeds or fails: the working muscle. To guide us in this endeavor, we’re excited to share that today’s content was co-authored with Dr. Phil Batterson, a pioneer in muscle

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Entry #004: The ergogenic potential of caffeine and sodium bicarbonate in endurance events

Snippet #001: Reducing Oxygen Diffusion Distance Through Capillary Growth

Entry #003: How to prepare for a cycling race, pre-race fueling timeline, 24 hours to the start

OpenLab #001: Real-time muscle oxygen measurements correlate well with blood lactate - Dr. Phil Batterson